3 Tips for Fostering Your Baby’s Healthy Emotional Development

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3 Tips for Fostering Your Baby’s Healthy Emotional Development

Just like physical development and cognitive development start at birth, so does your baby’s emotional development. Emotional development, sometimes called mental health refers to the development of social skills and regulation of emotions in babies. Understanding early emotional development is key in preventing mental health issues, such as depression and anxiety later on. Babies’ earliest experiences shape their brain so that future learning and development can occur. There are currently a lot of programs nation-wide to address early mental health concerns.

There are some important things to consider in fostering healthy social-emotional development in young children.

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1. A key component of baby’s healthy social-emotional development is the ability to establish a close and secure bond with a caregiver. This attachment creates a foundation of security that sets the child up for a stronger sense of self-esteem.

You can begin to form a bond between you and your baby before they are even born by talking, reading and singing to them in utero. Studies show that babies prefer mommy’s voice to any other sound because of familiarity. Also, it is very comforting to them. You can also bond with your newborn by doing skin-to-skin contact and baby massage, holding and comforting your baby when she is scared, hurt or upset, and responding to her by smiling and reassuring her. Signs of a healthy attachment are when your baby looks to you for reassurance, help or comfort. Also, when your baby uses good eye contact, is interactive, and is more comfortable with parents than strangers.

2. As children develop, their emotional well-being supports growth in other areas, such as physical growth, literacy, cognitive development, and overall good health.

Young children who do not meet early social-emotional milestones are more likely to fall behind in the other important areas of development throughout their preschool and school-age years. Strong emotional health serves as a foundation for other important skills.

Approximately 9.5%–14.2% of children birth to five-years-old experience emotional or behavioral disturbances, resulting in difficulties with social and emotional development.

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Just as positive experiences create strong emotional health, negative experiences can cause adverse effects on brain development and children’s mental health. Children who live in families experiencing “toxic stress” in the form of parental loss, substance abuse, mental illness. Or even, extreme poverty have higher rates of mental health disturbances as they get older.

3. A baby’s mental health is closely intertwined with their parent’s mental health. When parents’ own stressors inhibit them from healthy interaction with their baby. Also, they are unable to meet their baby’s needs, it affects the baby’s mental health and well-being.

It is really important for parents to remember to take care of themselves first. If parents do not take care of their own needs and manage their stress, they cannot adequately care for their baby. Care for the care-giver is critical to a healthy, well-adjusted child and overall family wellness. Some stressors may be too much for one person to manage on their own. It may be necessary to ask for some help from family, friends or even organizations in the community.

If sleep deprivation is becoming unmanageable. It is important to raise the white flag and ask for help from family and friends. Or, if the baby blues begin to turn into actual postpartum depression, it is important to seek out professional help. If external stressors make it difficult to care for the baby, such as financial concerns or health issues, it is helpful to have other caring individuals nearby for support.

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Emotional development is an important part of baby’s overall wellness. Having an awareness of this and taking care to ensure that emotional development is healthy will help to give babies the best start possible. This will set them up to be well-adjusted, self-assured and confident.

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Dr. Aimee Ketchum is a pediatric occupational therapist and has been working in pediatrics for 20 years. Ketchum works in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at UPMC Pinnacle Hospital and lives in Lancaster, Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters. Ketchum is also the owner/operator of Aimee’s Babies LLC, a child development company.